A/N: Okay sorry this took forever but I worked for a political campaign for a few months and I was on the phones like 8 hours a day and then it all came to a crumbling sudden halt and I fell into a slight depression and had to pull myself out of it by forcing myself to write The Agent Versus the Bartender. I hope this chapter makes up for the long hiatus. It might not. But either way, I hope you all enjoy this. :)
Disclaimer: I don't own "Chuck" and I'm not making any money writing this.
"Is he always like this?"
"I dunno, I only met him two weeks ago."
"Fair enough."
Chuck glowered up at them as he struggled with his bedroll that dropped out of the straps holding it to his pack and flopped open. "Okay, listen. Y'all can giggle and point all you want, but when I went camping, we were not this fancy. I had to stuff everything inside of my backpack and I didn't have a little roll thingy. So…nyeh."
Sarah giggled and sauntered up to him, shrugging her pack off of her shoulders with a grunt and setting it down before kneeling in front of him and helping him re-roll his pack up.
"Hold. Hold the phone. I blame myself on this one, Curly Top. I should've told you how to roll it and tie it properly." Liz came up to them and joined them on the ground, giving them a quick lesson. "See that? And you just tug here on this string and it tightens it up. You don't have to worry about it falling out of the straps again. Ta daaa!"
"Thanks," Chuck muttered, letting out a huff in amusement. "This is really underscoring just how much my buddies and I roughed it in high school went we went up into the mountains for a weekend."
"Did you wake up with wet leaves all over your back every morning?" Liz asked as they all shrugged their packs back on and kept walking.
"Yes," he laughed. "How'd you know?"
"Hiking life before REI showed me the way," she said, pointing to herself. "I woke up with many a wet leafy back."
Sarah laughed and fell in behind him as he trudged along behind Liz who obviously was taking the lead as the pro. "I don't see any wet leafy backs at the moment, but I do see two pretty cute butts."
"Stop it," Liz drawled with her dry wit, turning to point back at Sarah.
Chuck made a point of shaking his a little, sending her a smolder over his shoulder.
Sarah let out a, "Oooooo" and winked, making him laugh. "I still don't understand why you didn't wear those shorts. They were nice and tight," she continued.
"Because I would be up here climbing something and I'd get a tear right over my ass, that's why!" he chuckled.
"Exactly!"
"Oh my Godddddd, you two are seriously so cute and shit, but this is almost too much even for me. Do I need to split you up?"
"No!" Sarah gasped, even as Chuck simultaneously responded with, "Yes. Absolutely."
He felt Sarah push on his pack and laugh as Liz threw her head back with a full-on guffaw.
"I mean, feel free to take the lead, Chuck. I can walk in the middle, so long as Sarah promises not to hit on me the way she's been hitting on you freakin' nonstop, God damn horndog." Sarah was still laughing.
Chuck let out a snort. "If you let me lead this party, I'll walk us right into a volcano."
"No you wooon't. All you have to do is literally follow the trail. It takes us right to the falls. We're sleeping about two hour's hike away from the falls. And the entire way, you literally just follow this trail, man. So easy." Liz shrugged.
"So what you're saying, Liz, is that Chuck and I could've just done this together, just the two of us, without you being here whining and moaning about our flirting."
"Oh my God, I'm going to throw my compass at you!"
Chuck laughed at their affectionate bickering. And then he reached up and pushed a hand through his damp hair. It was an extremely humid day, which meant he constantly just felt…wet…these last three hours they'd been hiking up the mountain. He ruffled his hair extra hard and made a disgusted sound. He could feel how bad it probably looked, which he normally wouldn't have cared about except that he had two good-looking women currently flanking him and he was just as human as anyone else.
He felt Sarah come up from behind and push her fingers through it, too. "Leave your hair alone. It's fine."
He smiled over his shoulder at her. "It isn't really, though. This humidity is making it extra curly and it feels like it looks horrible."
"It's extremely adorable. Be nice to yourself, Curly Top," Liz said, tossing a smirk over her shoulder for his benefit.
"What it is is a hair disaster."
Liz snorted. "Kid, you're talking to a fuckin' ginger, okay? Every day of my life is a hair disaster so sit down."
They all laughed.
It was another half hour or so later when the trail seemed to almost widen a bit, and as Liz quietly hiked along in front of them, Sarah sidled up next to him to walk shoulder to shoulder. He felt her fingers idly play with his and he smiled to himself, before he turned to smile at her. She smiled back as he slipped his fingers into hers and folded their hands together. It was warm and a little muggy, but he had no problem holding her hand.
It wasn't until he heard the click that he turned and saw Liz carefully walking backwards up the trail as she snapped a photo of them with her camera she'd tied to her pack.
"Seriously?" Sarah whined. "Why?"
"Because I need to show this to Gina tomorrow when I get home. She'll totally die."
Chuck laughed. "I guess we sorta asked for it."
"Uh, yeah. If you two are going to be third wheeling me, I'm taking photos of you when you're disgusting. Deal with it." She'd since reattached her camera and was walking facing forward again.
Hours passed before Liz stopped and turned to face them, before gesturing off to their left. Chuck followed her gaze and his jaw must've landed at his feet immediately. The rolling mountains and valleys, green and browns mixed with jagged grey rock, the clouds above sending shadows through the nooks and crannies…
"Fuck," was all he was really capable of saying.
"Ridiculous, isn't it?" Liz asked.
Sarah just wrapped her hand around his bicep and held on. "Oh my God. How is it real?"
"I dunno, Sar. It just is." Liz sighed.
"You guys get to see this all the time," Chuck breathed, shaking his head. "I mean, I'm just…" He didn't know what. He was speechless.
Without even thinking about what he was doing, he bent his legs at the knee and just sat down on the ground, taking his pack off and just staring. He realized neither of them had followed suit and he looked up at Sarah first, then at Liz. "Sorry. Uh. If you don't mind, can I just sit for a minute and look?"
Sarah shrugged over his head at Liz who shrugged back and they took their own packs off, clambering down to sit on either side of him. What he didn't want to admit was that all of this hiking up an incline for hours had really done a number on him. And he didn't even know how long it would be until they hit those falls. He was prepared to just suck it up and keep going. But this was a pretty good excuse to sit for a little while.
And maybe he was a little ashamed, but oh well.
He silently congratulated himself on his cleverness and took a deep breath of the fresh air.
"So listen, why don't you two kids sit here for a bit and rest those tootsies while I go on ahead? I need to figure out where those falls are so that I have a good bearing on how much longer we're gonna be hiking today. I am hoping it's fifteen minutes or so. I'll be back in about thirty. Sound good?"
"You sure?" Sarah asked. "We can just come with you."
"Nah, really, it'll be like, twenty to thirty minutes. Just chill. Break open the jerky. Once we get to the falls, there will be plenty of places for us to fish for dinner."
Chuck nodded. "Fish for our dinner. Right. Of course. Where else would we get…food?"
He genuinely hadn't even thought about it. His buddies had packed a cooler with hot dogs and ice they could cook over an open fire when they went up the mountain for the weekend. And then they ate beans and fruit. Fishing for their own food? They probably would've starved or something.
Oh god, he didn't know how to fish. That seemed like the sort of thing he would suck at.
Liz had already moved away from them, disappearing up the trail, and he felt Sarah's weight against him, before she dropped her head on his shoulder.
"We could've just gone with her," he said.
"Yeah, but I think this was her way of letting us just…have a moment. Which was nice of her."
"That's like an extra thirty minutes of hiking so we could have a romantic moment?"
"Are you complaining?" she asked, propping her chin on his shoulder and grinning.
"Uhhh…" He took her in, the way the sunlight danced over her face and made her blue eyes stand out so much brighter than usual. "No," he said softly. "Not even a little."
He didn't want to go.
He didn't want to leave this woman, this place, or even really this moment.
He fought off an ache at the thought that he would have to. Eventually. He'd have to get on a plane back to Los Angeles, back to the real world, and settle back into his routine, All without this. Without her.
God, this sucked.
And yet, he needed to be in this moment. Because this moment didn't suck at all. And he leaned in and pressed his lips to her cheek, making her eyes soften. "Beef jerky?" she asked, holding some up in her hand between them.
"Wow, now that was super romantic."
She took a giant bite of the jerky and chewed, laughing, before offering him some. He leaned over and took a ravenous bite out of it, even growling to make her laugh, before he flipped it into his mouth and chewed.
"I'm going to be real with you, I'm super not looking forward to the concept of having to fish for my meal," he admitted after a few minutes of cuddling Sarah up against his side, his arm around her shoulders, both of them just taking in the view in comfortable silence.
Sarah snorted. "You'll be okay. I promise."
"What if I'm not? What if I'm like those really bad moments in those old comedies where I accidentally nab a fish that's way bigger than what I meant to catch and it drags me down the river?"
She laughed, her voice echoing a little. "As much as I love that imagery, that's not anything you have to worry about, Chuck. We're fishing in what's gonna amount to, like, a narrow, shallow river that you can stand in. It isn't like…white water rapids. Or the Mississippi. The only fish in it are this big or so," she said, holding her fingers apart about six or seven inches. "You can handle that."
Chuck gave his companion a flat look. "See, what you just did there is make it sound like it's no big deal. And when I fail at it now, I'm going to feel like even more of a jackass."
Chuckling at him, she shook her head and laid her hand on his thigh, squeezing reassuringly. "I promise, that's not gonna happen. If I can do it, you can."
She got an even flatter look for that. "Woman, oh my God, I saw you fix a literal boat underwater yesterday! What are you—? Get out of here with that. You're a freakin' bad ass, okay?"
"Excuse me. Says the guy who climbed up onto the Scuba Shack's roof right before a hurricane hit, in the wind and rain, to fix Alexei's radar toy's antenna thingy, which had been on the fritz—well, pretty much ever since he first got it and had it installed." She shrugged. "That wasn't bad ass? Come on."
"It's different," he said lamely. "That was easy. And anyway, I was just trying to impress you."
She smiled, a bit of a pout to it as though she'd just melted a little, and then she straightened up and jabbed his arm with her fist. "So impress me and catch some fish."
He chuckled, charmed half to death by her seemingly logical solution. "Okay, that antenna was a tech thing. It was…metal and wires and screws. Tools."
"A fishing rod is a tool!" Then something must've occurred to her. "You like video games, right?" He shrugged as if saying, duh! "Okay, at arcades…they always had that…fishing game. With the big rod attached and you could cast off with it and catch fish."
Chuck just boggled at her. "I know what you're talking about but I always walked right past that shit. Why go to an arcade and fish when you can go straight for Area 51 and shoot aliens, and for way less quarters?!"
She grumbled in frustration, then shrugged as if she had to concede the point. "I mean, yeah, I'd even rather play skee ball than that dumb fishing game, so I guess I can't blame you."
"You know what, Sarah? That's one of the best things about you, I think." She gave him a warm, questioning look. "That you can admit when you're wrong."
Sarah cracked up, her jaw falling open, and she swatted the back of his head. He laughed and caught her wrists before she could smack him again, and they started wrestling a bit, each trying to get the upper hand on the other, their laughter ringing through the valley.
She finally got the upper hand, only because he allowed himself to be pinned to the ground, but before he could concede to her, she leaned down and kissed him. Chuck sat up quickly, lips still attached to hers, and cupped her face tenderly, kissing her back.
He gently probed her mouth with his tongue, and it was right as her own joined in that they heard a twig snap. Sarah tensed and she pulled out of the kiss quickly, one arm rounding his shoulders and the other going behind her back, as if she was going to grab something that wasn't there.
"Jesus, you two can't stop sucking face, can you?"
Sarah eased up immediately and sent Liz an unamused glance over Chuck's shoulder.
He turned to shrug at the redhead. "Can you really blame me?"
"Oh, I'm so not answering that. Good news, the falls are only a ten minute walk this-a-way. So let's boogie." She pointed over her shoulder.
Chuck took one more piece of the jerky and shrugged his pack back onto his shoulders, readjusting the straps a bit and helping Sarah with hers, before they set off again.
It was a few minutes later when he began to hear a far off, distant roaring sound. Liz stopped and held up a rigid arm behind her so that his chest bumped into her palm. "Hear that?" she asked quietly.
He listened again. "Yeah. Either it's those falls you keep talking about or I got water in my ear when I took a shower this morning."
Liz rolled her eyes at him as he heard a quiet giggle come from behind him. "Probably both, ya idiot. Let's go." She chuckled and continued to lead them onwards.
The roaring got louder, the higher they climbed, until Liz walked them up to something of a cliff-face. She stopped and turned to face them. "Okay, moment of truth. Right over these rocks lies basically an oasis of crystal clear, cool waters and the most beautiful waterfall you'll ever see in your life." She held her hands out at waist-level, palms down. "But there's a catch. We have to climb over this. And the rocks are wet and it's gonna be kind of hard."
"Can't go around?" Sarah asked curiously.
"Nah. Only way in is climbing. Trust. I've explored all around the place. Any path we might take would just take us all the way around it. Which is the way we're going so that we can hunker down for the night and eat and stuff. But yeah. If you wanna see the falls, this is it. I leave it up to you two." She shrugged, seemingly not caring how they decided either stared at the rock face that was about three times his height and gulped. "Is, uh, is this why you told me not to wear my Converse?"
"Yup!"
"Do we, uh, do we…" He gulped again. "Do we have rope or…something?"
"Yeah. I can get you over it without dying," Liz said with such a nonchalant shrug that he nearly tipped over from the power of it. "It's just about whether or not you trust me." The smile she gave him wasn't exactly a smirk, but it wasn't…not a smirk.
"Chuck, it's up to you," Sarah said then, putting a hand on his shoulder and squeezing reassuringly. "And it's totally fine if you don't want to."
He glanced over at her. She wanted to. He could see it in her face. She really wanted to. There was almost an ache in her blue eyes as she stared up at the rocks.
"Fuck it. Let's go."
They both sent him wide-eyed looks, then glanced at one another, and back at him again.
"I'm not even gonna ask if you're sure. Not even gonna waste anybody's time with that," Liz muttered, putting her pack down and starting to untie it, yanking out the rope. "This is small potatoes compared to the shit I've climbed in my day. Simple Simon. Here, help me with this, will ya, Blondie?"
Chuck stood by helplessly and watched as Liz did all of the prep, until something caught his eye. "Hey, wait a second…" Both women looked up at him as he closed the distance. "I don't want you to think I'm, uh, correcting you or anything…" He held his hands up at shoulder-height.
Liz just blinked and shrugged. "Nah, I wanna hear this. Lay it on me, Charles."
He took the metal piece thingy that he assumed was going up near the top of the rock somewhere and he turned it around, facing in the other direction, before tugging on the rope, looping it through another way, and then yanking tight. "This seems like it would be further from the rock so it wouldn't rub on it and maybe…you know, fray or whatever. That's all."
Liz took it back from him and stared down at it. "Well, where the fuck'd you learn that? I mean, that's honestly how you're supposed to do it but it takes more work and I get lazy on this thing 'cause it's such a simple climb." She winced. "Probably not what either of you want to hear from an REI tour guide. Obviously I do it this way when I'm being paid to lead a tour, but it's just you two, so…I'm really digging myself into a hole here, so I'm gonna shut up and just leave it at, good work, Chuck! Seriously, how'd you know this?"
He just shrugged, rubbing his hands on his pants. "I, uh, I dunno." He cleared his throat. "Just…seemed logical, I guess?"
It would take too much time to tell them about the summer camp he'd led for underprivileged kids in San Jose in his Stanford days. It also felt like boasting and that wasn't his style. Look at me helping underprivileged kids. Am I not just the greatest person? Where's my blue ribbon?
"Chuck?"
He shook himself a little and looked at Sarah. "Hm?"
"I asked if you want us to go first." She had a strange, searching look on her face. "Boy Scout," she teased then.
"Fun fact: I was in Boy Scouts for about a week, and then my mom bailed on our family and I had no desire to go back and no way to get there because there was no bus line that went to that part of town." He cleared his throat and ran his hands down his shirt, a little embarrassed by the outburst. "Uh."
"Well, shit, Chuck." Liz shrugged. "Screw that lady. No offense, since it's, like, your mom."
"Nah, you can say it. It's cool. She didn't do me any favors."
She looked like she had more she wanted to say, but then she just shook her head. "Yeah, well… screw Boy Scouts, too."
"I dunno. I would've liked to have had some background in all this stuff. Some legit training, you know? Outdoor battle tactics. Like James Bond but, like…for nature."
"You just pulled that rope trick out of your ass, then? Seriously?" Sarah asked, narrowing her eyes a little. Almost like she didn't believe him. He just shrugged. "Wow. You're just full of surprises, Chuck."
"I guess so." He smirked, but the searching look was still there on her face, like she was trying to figure him out. Good luck, he thought to himself. He couldn't even figure his own ass out. He inwardly scoffed.
"Let's do Liz first, then I'll go, and Chuck, you can climb up last." Sarah clapped her hands together. "There. I made the decision for everyone. I wanna see these falls and swim in the magic water. Chop chop, ginger. Let's go."
Liz cackled. "Jesus Christ. You get bossy when you're impatient. I'm goin', I'm goin'…" She widened her eyes and held her hands up, setting her feet and starting the work of scaling the rock wall.
"You really do get bossy when you're impatient," he muttered so only Sarah could hear, leaning in close. "I know this firsthand." She sent him an arched eyebrow. "Not that I don't like it, because I do." He winked and stepped away again, leaving her standing there, gaping at him, her jaw having fallen open.
Take that, he thought in her direction. A taste of her own medicine.
"So the trick is to find one of these little ledges here for your fingers and just grab on. Then move your foot up. An indentation works too. Like this one."
He watched Liz expertly move up the wall until she reached the top, and then he grabbed the rope and helped Sarah get started, not that he really knew what he was doing. She climbed much slower than Liz, but she was a lot more graceful, every placement of her hands and feet was methodical, measured.
But then she paused and leaned in close to a beautiful tangle of leaves and pink flowers that looked a lot like….oh shit. "FREEZE!"
To her credit, Sarah did exactly that, her body going rigid.
"What is it? Is it a snake?" she asked.
"Do we even have snakes?" Liz asked from where she perched at the top of the wall.
"Some. But they were illegally brought here. Chuck? What is it?" Sarah asked, still having not moved. "Is it on me?"
"No, no. Sorry. I just…Look, just trust me and climb towards your right. Just move away from that flower you're almost touching."
"Okay. But why?" she asked even as she carefully shifted across the wall to the right.
"That's oleander," he said.
"Oh shit, is it? I thought those were yellow." Liz gave him a wide-eyed look. "Are you sure?"
"Yep. It's the shape of the flower. I recognize it. They can be yellow, or pink, or white, or red…any of the colors in between that." At least, that was if he remembered correctly. It had been a long time since he did that camp. At least six or seven years now.
"Jesus, you know how to tie a climbing rope and you know all the poisonous plants, too? Boy Wonder over here. And you tried to tell us you didn't do Boy Scouts. Pfft," Liz teased.
"I know some stuff that isn't techy," he chuckled. "And I'm almost offended that you're both so surprised."
"It's not that I'm surprised because of…you," Sarah said, grunting quietly as she continued climbing. "It's just that you are this LA boy and said the thing about Boy Scouts, and you were just freaking out about having to fish."
"You're freaking out about fishing?"
He blanched. "What? No, I'm—I'm fine. I just don't know how, that's all."
"Sarah's right. This is all very suspect, Curly Top."
"It's not suspect! I just know random shit, that's all. And the rope was just…a logical leap. That's all."
"Uh huhhhh, sure. I think you're some sort of Jeff Corwin type secret agent sent here to make sure REI is running their tours and hikes safely and you're gonna report me for that rope shit and not immediately recognizing oleander. But I have news for you, this is an unsanctioned trip and I'm not being paid for it. So nyeh." She stuck her tongue out.
Sarah was particularly quiet as she finally cleared the last few feet and grabbed onto Liz's wrist so that the REI hiking guide could hoist her the rest of the way up to the top, but she seemed to be concentrating so he shrugged it off.
Chuck cracked up at Liz's scenario. "Yeah, you know what? You're right, Liz. Unsanctioned hikes with REI equipment? That's another write-up. Letting people climb around near oleander which can give you bad rashes and blisters if you let it or its sap get on your skin? Another one."
"I'm going to drop my pack on your head," she threatened.
"Threatening your customer? Another one." He made like he was making a check mark on a clipboard.
"Just get your mouthy ass up here so we can see a damn waterfall."
It was another ten or so minutes before Chuck was able to get to the top of the wall and he wasn't exactly proud of himself for it. Sure, he was a lot taller than both Liz and Sarah, but his feet and hands were bigger, as well, and he also felt the rope loosen around him a few times. Rather, he thought he felt it, because he had paranoia. That slack feeling made him almost dizzy.
And when he finally got to the top, he kissed the rocks under his knees for their benefit.
It wasn't until he climbed up to stand at his full height that he could peer down past the ferns and down below. He gaped at the sight.
If that valley had been beautiful…this was otherworldly.
"Oh my God," he breathed.
Water spilled down from the body above, spouting out of different spots in the cliff face, some gushing down, others coming down in beautiful patterned rivulets. And it all surrounded one big waterfall in the middle that emptied down into a beautiful, clear pool of water that looked absolutely delectable in this humid heat they'd been hiking in for hours.
"Sorry, Liz, I'm afraid you won't be getting me to leave this place for any reason. Not to fish for dinner, not to camp for the night. Nope." He shook his head vehemently, still staring down at the sight. She was taking pictures, chuckling.
And he thought she had quite an idea with that, so he went in his pocket and fished his phone out that he'd turned off, turning it back on, flicking on airplane mode, and taking a few photos. He pocketed it again and followed his two companions down the trail to the water.
Once there, they all peeled off their shoes and socks before stepping into the cool water. It was almost frigid, if he was being honest, but it felt so good he didn't care. He just let his eyes shut and stood there for a good two minutes, taking in the scent of the water and flowers, feeling the spray against his face. Suddenly there was a crunching of leaves and he turned to watch as Sarah streaked past him in just her underwear and bra, going right into the water with a happy squeal, before she dove under for a long while. She finally came up with a gasp and grinned.
"Not coming in, Curls?" she asked, bobbing around on her back and blinking up at the sky happily. God, he wanted to. He went deeper, deeper…even deeper… But when the bottom hems of his shorts were on the verge of getting wet, he shook his head and came back out of the water with a sigh. He didn't have his swim trunks. And he didn't want to walk around in wet clothes. He padded up to the redhead chilling on the shore with her feet dangling in the water that was lapping at the rocks.
"Hey. Liz, thank you."
She looked up from where she was munching on dried fruit and tilted her head in question.
"Seriously. Taking us up here, this…" He gestured to the falls behind him.
"Oh, I didn't do that," she said, pointing. They both laughed and she shrugged. "You're welcome. I thought you'd be a good candidate. I don't take just anybody up here. Especially not when I'm not getting paid. When I get paid, I, uh, unfortunately have to do it." She rolled her eyes.
"I'm honored you brought me."
"Yeah, well." She gestured with a tilt of her chin towards Sarah as he plopped down to sit next to her, taking some of the fruit she offered and tossing it in his mouth. "I kinda did it for that one over there too."
He frowned a little. "What do you mean?"
"She's happy." Liz shrugged. "Gina and I were talking about it. How happy she is. Not that she's usually, like…unhappy. She's a tough cookie to crack, hard to really know how she feels. Except right now, she's, like…legitimately just…happy."
"She lives in Hawaii." He chuckled.
"Nah, it's different. Not to spook you or anything, but you're really getting to her. I mean, I've only known her, like, half a year or something. But this is the first time I've seen her this…I dunno, light and…happy. That's really the only word I can use to describe it."
"What's it have to do with me? I'm just…I mean, I'm me."
"Yeah, okay." She scoffed and he turned away to watch as Sarah floated around in the water on her back, swooping water up with one hand and letting it drip over her bare stomach and abdomen. "You've been good to her."
He felt something soften inside of him as he watched her slip back under the water and pop back up again, a soft smile on her face as she peered up at the falls. "It's what she deserves."
"Of course she does. But that doesn't necessarily mean it's what she's gotten." He turned to look at her in question and she held up a hand. "Just a feeling I get about her. I don't know. Like I said, we don't know jack squat about her outside of what we see at the Shack and stuff. It's just…gut feeling. I read people."
"Do you?" He smiled. "Well, Liz, what do you read from me?"
"You're a really good person, Chuck. A sincerely genuine person who does nice things and is nice because that's just…who you are. None of us would be as nice to you as we are if we didn't all get that vibe from you. Trust me."
He blushed and chuckled nervously. "Do you guys all talk about me when I'm not around?"
"Oh, all the time," she laughed.
"Greeeat, that's just great." He scratched the back of his head, embarrassed, even as he grinned.
"This is all to say you've passed the test. Without even knowing you were being tested." He gave Liz a searching look and she tilted her head, raising her eyebrows. "Go forth, young hero. Show our HBM the good life."
He winced. "Is this the part where you tell me not to hurt her? I've already gotten a weird spiel like that from Alexei and—"
"Oh God, I thought that might be what that was about. He's embarrassing. I'm not gonna do that. She's a grown-ass woman. She knows what the fuck she's doing."
Chuck thought about what Sarah'd told him the night before about Freddy Casual and how she'd kicked him out of her house after he treated her like dirt. "Uuuuuh, yeah. Yeah, she's gonna be fine."
"So stop being so damn stressed about it. You're grown adults." He boggled at her. "What? I told you I read people. She likes you. You like her. Live a little. Have sex."
"Jesus."
"Oh, come on, how old are you?" She shook her head at him in disappointment. "You think Gina didn't tell me she saw you at Sarah's the other morning when she went over to pick up the files? Also, you two think you're tiptoeing about the hurricane, but I read between the lines. You spent it together. HAVE. SEX." She emphasized it by throwing a dried apricot in her mouth, chewing it slowly.
"Listen, I'm human. I'm aware that there are repercussions to actions. That's all."
"What repercussions? You have fun? Great sex?" He gave her a look, wondering why she continued to bring that up and she shrugged casually. "I mean, I'm assuming. The woman is practically floating around the Scuba Shack like a bright, loose kite or something."
"Great sex floating? Like a kite?" He laughed.
"Yes!" She stood by her weird metaphors, he had to hand it to her.
He tried not to blush too hard, shaking his head. "Okay, fine. But can we stop?"
"Fine, old fudders." He furrowed his brow in his best what the fuck look but she ignored it. "God, you're what, like…in your mid to late twenties or something? Lighten up, man. Just have fun! Repercussions…Jesus, dude. It's not like that movie Sleeping with the Enemy. She's a scuba instructor and you're a tech dude on vacation. It's not that serious."
It was, though, so he took what Liz said with a grain of salt. But he still took it, absorbed it, and finally stood up, whipping his shirt off over his head before setting his fingers to his belt. "Sorry, Liz. You're about to see Riddler boxer briefs and a whole lotta Chuck. Cover your eyes."
He heard her call out, "I don't give a shit. I'm gay!" as he sprinted into the water towards Sarah.
She spun to face him with a massive grin and a laugh just before he leapt through the air and dove into the water, surging through it until he rounded her torso with his arms and tackled her underwater.
Her arms came up and wrapped around his shoulders as he found his footing and stood up to his full height with her in his arms, legs dangling off to the side. She was laughing, even shivering a little he realized. The water went up to just above his belly button when he stood at his full height, which meant a lot of her body was hanging out of the water, the air gracing her cool, wet skin.
"Changed your mind, I see," she flirted, tightening her arms around his shoulders so that their noses were brushing.
"Yes, I did. But my underwear is going to be wet now for…a very long time."
She smirked. "You could just take 'em off."
Chuck full on threw Sarah back into the water, causing her to yelp in surprise and disappear under the water. Liz was cackling on the shore, pointing as Sarah reemerged and spun on him. He could immediately tell he was in trouble, but he still couldn't help but laugh.
She sprang at him, tackling him into the water. When he came up, gasping for air, she was on his back, and he grabbed her arms and threw her off of him again, raising his arms over his head and doing his best Godzilla impersonation.
Sarah burst up from the water and splashed him.
"Ah! No!"
He splashed back, starting a full-on splash war.
They continued playing for a little while, laughing, before they ended up just floating in the water side-by-side.
"Think there's a cave of wonders behind the waterfall?" he asked, tilting his head back to look.
She giggled. "A cave of wonders?"
"Or just a cave. I dunno. I'm curious about what it looks like back there. Besides it being…" He paused dramatically. "…The backside of waaaterrrrr!"
When he glanced at her, he saw she was giving him a look that said, "what's wrong with you?" and he shook his head, clearing his throat. "You've never been to—? Never mind. Doesn't matter."
"Well, let's go look."
"Think we should go get dressed and head over to the fishing stream or whatever so we can get our dinner and dry off while it's still light out?" he asked, looking over at Liz. He noticed she'd since laid herself out on the ground, her head on her pack, her eyes shut.
"Oh, come on. Let's go. We'll just go look. It'll only take a few minutes." She grabbed his hand and he had almost a flashback of that moment underwater two weeks earlier when she took her mouthpiece out to mouth "trust me", before pulling him into that tunnel where everything had changed.
He smiled warmly. "I know I've only known you for two weeks, but I think I learned pretty quickly that when Scuba Sarah wants to show me an adventure, I'd better freakin' say yes."
Her beaming grin smacked him right in the chest. "Smart guy."
The flirtatious look she gave him over her shoulder as she led him to the rocks furthered his resolve to check out the spot behind the waterfall with her. They climbed out of the water onto the rocks and he tried really hard not to be embarrassed by the way his boxer briefs seriously clung to his junk and backside now that they were wet. He took care not to glance at Sarah, both because her underthings were probably just as clingy as his, and also because he didn't want to know if she was staring at him.
That was something neither of them should be thinking about out here, especially not with Liz around.
He had to admit…he'd consider it if Liz wasn't here. Then again, they wouldn't be on this hike if it weren't for Liz. And he told his brain to just shut up.
Sarah took the lead, carefully picking her way across the wet flat rocks and squeezing past the water into what wasn't exactly a full-on cave, but there was sort of a rocky shore that rose out of the water, the water creating a thick screen between them and the outside world once they snuck in.
"This is even better than the backside of water," he said dreamily, pushing his wet hair back from his face.
"Not a bad view, either."
Chuck let out a heavy sigh. "Okay, I get it. The Riddler briefs are a lot. Especially wet but—" He realized as he glanced at her that she was facing the pretty little cropping of moss on the stones and definitely not him. "Oh. Yeah. The…That's pretty."
Sarah giggled. "Wow, Chuck." This time she did drag her blue gaze down his body and slowly back up to his face again. "A little cocky, aren't we?"
"Shut uuuuuuuup," he drawled, grinning self-deprecatingly and shaking his head, aware that he was blushing.
"No, hey, I like it."
"Stop."
"You've got a lot to be confident about."
"Okay, I get it."
"And you look really good in bright green. I must say."
He lunged at her, making her squeak and giggle as he grabbed her by her hips, trapping her against him as he laughed. "Thank you. To be honest, this pair always makes me feel a bit more confident. Bolder."
She giggled, sliding her hands up his torso to rest against his chest. "That's really adorable."
"Adorkable. Considering it's a villain from Batman." He chuckled.
"Fine. That."
Sarah gave a minute shake of her head then, her blue eyes softening, and then she leaned up to kiss him. It was warm, long, intimate, and it began to pick up after a few moments, close to a minute into it. When her hand began to wander a bit, he groaned and pulled back reluctantly, grabbing said hand and pulling it away.
"Careful. We go much further and it's gonna be a problem." He cleared his throat and meaningfully flicked his eyes down his body.
She followed his gaze and took his meaning, her lips forming an 'o' in understanding. She methodically took a step backwards, away from him and nodded. "Right. Good point."
But she was still nibbling on her lip in a way that was way too seductive for him to handle. "Okay, we gotta go back. I wanna get dry while the sun's still high enough to do it."
"Fiiiiiiiine," she whined, amusement still in her face as she watched him closely.
}o{
Chuck huffed in frustration as he stared into the pan Liz had placed above the fire to cook their dinner.
"What?" Sarah asked, bumping his shoulder.
"I told you I was gonna suck at the fishing thing."
"You didn't suck. You caught one."
"You caught, like, six. And Liz caught the big fat one and four little ones." He stared at her and she seemed not to know how to respond to that.
Liz sat across from them on the other side of the fire, sprinkling sea salt onto the fish and chuckling. "Dude. Don't be so hard on yourself all the time. First time I held a fishing rod and tried to catch something, I got a fuggin' boot. Like in a cartoon."
He and Sarah both laughed, and he found he loved the way she shifted until she was full-on leaning into him so that he had to lift his arm and wrap it around her body. He hugged her close, her arm landing on his thigh, hand squeezing his knee.
"No way," he said.
"Seriously. I really did. I was, like, ten or something. And I remember turning to my dad like, 'The hell is this!?'" Liz laughed and shook her head. "He laughed at me for a whole hour, I swear."
"First time I went fishing, we were at this…fish farm or something like that. You know those places you can pull off the side of the road and they have just this big man-made hole in the ground with fish in it, and you pay to fish, you get to keep it or whatever." Sarah sat up a bit and his hand fell to her hip. "So my dad was like, 'No, no. We have a schedule, we can't, no no…' But I begged him. I really wanted to fish. I guess you just see it enough on TV and it plants this seed in your head. So he relented and we pulled in. He paid. The fish farmer or whatever," she giggled, "taught me how to do it and everything, and bam! Felt the tug. It was only, like, a minute or two in. I was totally prepared to sit there for hours like it was on TV, right? Open a beer, kick back in one of those floppy hats, you know?" He found himself chuckling at her description of her childish imagination. It was incredibly cute. "But nope, immediately got a bite. So my dad helps me, but I reel it up out of the water and it's this whole thing. People clapping, cheering. I'm standing there like…" She put her fists on her hips and did a superhero pose. "And then the farmer guy hands me this metal pipe and I'm like, 'What's this?'"
Chuck knew what was coming and he groaned. "Oooh nooooo," he chuckled, shaking his head.
Liz was already holding her head in her hands and he knew she saw what was coming too.
"He goes, 'Well just put the fish right here and bash it with the pipe here, just once, really hard.' And I just gaped at him as my dad held the fish down. And I do this high-pitched, full-body screech." They were all cracking up at this point. "Just 'Nooooooooooooooo!' And I cried and ran away."
"Did you think you were going to get to put it back in?" Liz asked through her laughter.
"Yeah! I just wanted to catch it! I dunno, I was a kid. I didn't know you had to bash it over the head with a fucking pipe!"
"So did you do it?"
"Hell no. I waited at the car, still crying while my dad did it and let some other dude there keep the fish." She giggled. "It took almost a year for me to get to a point where I could even eat fish again."
He chuckled and pulled her back against him to give her a comforting squeeze. "That's the best story I've ever heard."
"Thank you. It was traumatic. To say the least."
But she'd just shared something about her past, about her dad specifically, and something about it just felt…special. That she sat here and felt comfortable enough to tell him and Liz that story, without halting. He didn't know her too well, and he definitely hadn't known her for long, but he could just tell it wasn't something she did often. If ever.
"Speaking of brewskies…" Liz was going to climb up from her perch on a rock to go and get the beers they'd tied to a branch, letting the cold mountain water run over them and get them cold naturally, but he gently extracted himself from Sarah and stood.
"Nah I got it! I got it. Just, uh, watch the fish. I don't want it too crispy."
She just laughed at his teasing. He exchanged a quiet look with Sarah as she peered up at him warmly, the firelight dancing on her face, and he found himself grinning hard as he walked away from their little camp towards the water. It was dark out now, but the half moon was hovering overhead, making it easy enough for him to see where he was going and where they'd tied up the beers.
He made quick work of grabbing the beers, six bottles in all, making the two minute stroll up the hill and back to the camp.
Liz was divvying up the food onto small compostable saucers that looked fit for teacups rather than eating a meal off of them, and Sarah was slouched over the fire helping her, when he arrived, the beers dangling from his fingers.
"Oh man, I could smell it from all the way down by the water," he said as he approached.
"A good smell, I hope," Liz said drily.
He chuckled. "Very good. I'm starving."
As the women sat down with their food, Sarah holding his in her other hand, he popped the caps off of three bottles of the refreshingly cold Hawaiian beer and set the other three aside, passing them out, and finally taking his seat next to Sarah again.
As he ate, thoroughly enjoying the flaky outside of the fish and the warm, tender insides, letting the cold bubbly beverage coat his throat in the best way as he took a long swig, he wondered if he'd ever felt quite so at peace ever before in his life.
Chuck had the warmth of an incredible woman against his side, as Sarah had swiveled to face away from him so that her back was pressed into his arm and side. He had his food, his beer, good company, and the night air just felt so perfect. The forest was alive around them, bugs chirping, other creatures—birds maybe? He wasn't sure—crying out in the night, the crackle of the fire…
All three of them enjoyed the silence. They'd already prepped their bedrolls near the fire, and in spite of Liz bringing a tent, they all had agreed that it didn't feel necessary to put it up just for the one night.
So as she finished up her third helping of the fish, Liz finally climbed to her feet. "I'm knackered, y'all. I'm hitting the sack. You two can handle putting this fire out?" she asked, yawning with a bit of a moan.
"We got it," Sarah said, nodding. "Gnight, Liz."
"Night. And remember, kids, only you can prevent forest fires. Ha."
"Night, Liiiz," he called after her as she waved over her shoulder.
She ambled away, leaving him alone with Sarah. The blonde promptly took his "plate" from him, setting it aside with hers, and she full-on reclined against him, pulling her jacket tight around her, then grabbing his arms and doing the same with them. He chuckled, shifting so that she was angled more against his chest, and he held her, resting his chin on the top of her head.
"This is nice," she breathed, her voice just barely carrying over the crackling flame.
"So nice I'm almost afraid I'm dreaming or something."
Sarah let out a one syllable giggle. "You aren't."
"Oh, good." He watched the dark silhouette of Liz lie down about twenty feet away from them, zipping herself up tight, before stilling, and he held Sarah tighter. Something occurred to him to ask her then, and before his tired, fed brain that had two beers' worth of alcohol affecting it could stop him, he just let loose.
"R'you happy?"
She froze in his embrace, turning her head just a little. "M'what?" she asked, confusion in her voice. "Am I happy?" she repeated. He nodded, affectionately nuzzling the back of her head a bit with his nose and chin. "I mean, sure. I mean, I don't really see why not. I guess, uh…I am in this moment, honestly. But that's such a random question." She smirked a bit at him over her shoulder.
Chuck smiled back. "Sorry, I know. Guess I was just curious. I mean, you told me that first night on our date, out on my balcony, that you were in a bunch of places all these years. But D.C. for two years was it?" She nodded silently. "Why there for so long? I mean, what eventually made you decide you needed a change?" He huffed, shaking his head. "I'm not making sense, I know. I just mean, were you that unhappy? That you just picked up and flew, what, like…ten hours away?"
When she didn't answer, thoughtfully playing with his fingers, he wondered if she was trying to find a nice and polite way to tell him it was none of his business. "Sorry. None of my business. I know. I just wanna know…about you."
"Why?" She threaded her fingers with his this time. "I'm not asking in, like, a snotty way."
"I guess I just like you. And when I like someone, I wanna know more. Sorry. I'm not trying to be intense."
"You aren't being intense." She squeezed his hand, her other one moving to rest on his thigh again. "I guess I wasn't happy in D.C. And I thought…what's the furthest away I can get from the almost harsh, fast-paced, cutthroat political town? Laid back, touristy, chill tropical island, right?"
"Hmm. I get you. Totally." He smiled against her hair. "Was it the job or the people?"
"All of the above. I just needed out of there. It wasn't…safe." She twisted a little to give him a side-glance. "Emotionally, mentally. I mean. Like, I felt stifled, out of control. Like, my fate was in…someone else's hands and not my own. I know it probably sounds weird and crazy to you, but that's the best I can describe it." She paused for a while, but he felt she had more to say so he didn't interrupt her. "I can't believe I'm telling you all of this."
"This is the perfect atmosphere for it. Out in nature. Just the two of us. The fire and moonlight."
Sarah let out a soft giggle. "Maybe that's it. But I've been in situations like this with my coworkers before. Having had way more than two beers and a fish and a half… Never got this deep before."
"In your defense, I'm kinda pushy." He felt her torso bounce against his as she let out a quiet, bubbly laugh. "I mean, you wouldn't have done it if I hadn't asked."
"Maybe that's it. Nobody's ever asked." She snuggled back into him a bit more and he tightened his hold on her, staring into the fire. "But what about you? You seem pretty happy where you are. Building up the, uh…company. Baaarrr…"
"BarTech. Yep."
"That's right. BarTech. Clever."
"No, it isn't," he scoffed with a snort. "But thanks. That's sweet."
She giggled. "I actually have a bit of a confession to make." She turned her face up so he could look down and meet her gaze. "That morning after I left you sleeping, I totally went home and Googled you. Actually, full disclosure, I maybe did it on my phone while I was still in the process of driving home." She winced.
"Whoa. Hey. No Googling and driving." She laughed at that, bumping his shoulder with her head. "What'd you find out? I've got a few employees who look at that sort of thing for me so I don't have to. I'm a little freaked out about what they might have on me."
"Your fingerprints, social security. I mean, a full dossier," she teased.
He snorted. "Better get my fixers to purge me off the Internet."
A quiet one syllable giggle came through her nose and she started playing with his fingers again. "There wasn't a lot, actually. Which is weird."
"Oh, I assure you. BarTech is real and I am, too. But like I said, I've run some interference on it, sort of made sure to do it before the company actually started to pull in numbers and get on the radar. It was easier to do that with the way I avoided Silicon Valley altogether and stayed in LA."
"Interference?" she asked quietly.
"Yeah." He shrugged, turning his hand over and threading his fingers with hers. He could feel they were cold, so he blanketed her hand with his. "I don't like the idea of them pulling me into the limelight. I'm not a limelight guy. I don't want it to be about me. I want it to be about my products, the work we put into everything. You know?"
Sarah winced up at him. "Probably should've thought about that before you called it BARTech."
He winced back, then chuckled. "You make a good point, there." He sniffed in amusement then. "My sister's just started surgery the last year or two, you know? And her research and everything. I don't want her name getting out there. I don't think she wants that, either."
"But you wanna be successful, don't you? I mean, literally all that was on your Wikipedia page was that you were born in Encino, no year or actual date, nothing about parents or high school… It did mention Stanford. You were valedictorian at Stanford. That's just insane."
He let out a pfft sound. "One of 'em. And thankfully not the one that had to make the speech at graduation. Lucked out there. Ha haaa."
Sarah giggled. "I feel like you'd make a good speech."
"Uh me now, maaaaybe? Just 'cause I've been leading my team at BarTech and boy do they need inspiration some days." She laughed. "But twenty-two year old Chuck Bartowski? Ha! I was so overwhelmed with the five billion things I was doing back then, I feel like some days I might've put my shoes on the wrong feet." He shook his head.
"Five billion things, huh?"
"Yeah."
"Like what?"
"Liiike…Well, I had to ace every class I took. I needed to for the scholarship I was hoping to get. I needed that huge chunk of money so I could try to get BarTech started. In the meantime, I was trying to code, starting to build programs I could market. All while working an internship—unpaid of course, because why get paid when you can get exposure," she snorted and shook her head in response to his sarcasm, "and then I also waited tables at a local diner on weekends during the day, a few weeknights after class."
She sat forward a bit and gaped up at him, eyes wide. "Oh my God, when did you have time to eat and sleep?"
"I learned to eat while walking. And sleeping…?" He winced. "I didn't sleep much."
She stared for a few long moments and then tilted her head. "It's crazy to meet someone who hasn't just…inherited a fortune or a super successful business. Someone who's actually worked their ass off and was brilliant—"
"Luck," he admitted honestly. "Sometimes hard work and brains isn't even enough. I just hit the market with the right thing at the right time." He shrugged. "That's the truth of it." Pulling her back against his chest, he smiled into her hair. "And the luck just keeps on coming, it seems."
"Knock on wood," she said after a quiet, warm couple of moments. She made a fist and knocked a few times on his thigh, making him chuckle. "I know your leg isn't wood but it's all I got."
"Fair enough."
They sat there for a few more minutes before putting the fire out and crawling into their bedrolls to sleep.
A/N: Writing this fic is cathartic. Even editing it is cathartic. I hope you all get something out of reading it. And I hope you enjoyed the fun Kauai camping! Please review! Thanks so much!
-SC